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This is the Conversation Forum for Ask h2g2 << What's that French Phrase... Olympic gain or minus? >> Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 10, 2012 by ~ jwf ~ This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 21 There we go! Just a quick thought about come and arrive. Arrive seems to be more specific to the moment of arrival whereas we might say 'it comes from (insert place name)' for some time after it has arrived. (Note that some processed goods can be said to have 'derived' from natural resources that 'came' from places abroad.) ~jwf~ Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 10, 2012 by paulh. I'm a fool, but please think of me as a jester This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 22 [Listens to the "William Say Overture"] Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 10, 2012 by Robyn Hoode - Navigator. Now with added Studnet status! This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 23 If I say something to you, I may or may not be too concerned about how closely you've listened. If I am telling you something, I will probably expect some of it to have been listened to. As for arrival, it has to do with where I'm arriving AT as opposed to where I come FROM. I think. Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 10, 2012 by ~ jwf ~ This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 24 Ya gotcher Arrivals and Departures and ya gotcher Comings and Goings. "A parcel has arrived in the Post" "A parcel has come in the Post." We hear both and we understand both without questioning but can a parcel can be said to have come since it has neither volition nor mobility of its own. It hasn`t really come, someone has brought it. And it has arrived. Yes - No. -jwf- Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 10, 2012 by KB This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 25 You can "come to" as well as "come from" a place. Although it isn't as rude to tell someone "you'll come to a muddy hole in the road" as it is to tell them "you come *from* a muddy hole in the road". To me the difference is that the arrival is the endpoint. The coming is the travelling, the arriving is when it stops. Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 11, 2012 by paulh. I'm a fool, but please think of me as a jester This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 26 Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Healthy language Posted Aug 11, 2012 by Stone Aart - the saturnalian Sybarite currently perched on Galbraiths Roost. This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 27 "To come" and "to arrive" appear to be intransitive verbs, so don't take a direct object. The object of the action is the subject - there is no action transfer from subject to object, instead the action relates back to the subject. The action represents an altered state of the subject. Both can receive an indirect object (I believe) which in this case is related to the subject. Arrive seems to have a narrower definition than come. Arrive comes from latin ad ripa, meaning "to the river bank / shore of a river" and so originally meant the action of stepping off a boat and onto the river bank - to a river (bank), hence to arrive. Come seems to have a somewhat murkier germanic origin. Conversation list Conversation list

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